Earlier this week, executive editor Jill Abramson appeared on CBS News' "Face the Nation" and said the Times feared "news gathering is being criminalized." She added, "The reporters who work for the Times in Washington have told me many of their sources are petrified even to return calls" in light of the Justice Department's agressive investigations into leaks.

Late Thursday afternoon, The Times published another scathing editorial about the sweeping court order that allowed the NSA to collect Verizon customers' phone data. The board wrote:

Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the 9/11 attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.

The board added that it was not objecting to the legality of the court order but argued against using the Patriot Act for this purpose.

This stunning use of the act shows, once again, why it needs to be sharply curtailed if not repealed.

The Times appears to have updated its editorial, adding to its statement, "The administration has now lost all credibility." Journalist Adam Henry of WAFF-TV noticed that the line now reads, "The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue."